Support around the globe!

My good friend Jenn is currently teaching english to kids in Taiwan. When she heard about my campaign, she was inspired and decided that she wanted to find a way to help out. What she did reminded me of the wealth of human kindness, regardless of age, location or culture.

Jenn teaches mostly 5th graders at an after-school learning center called Big Byte. At the time of my announcement, the class was studying a section on volunteering. As an end to the section, Jenn thought it would be an interesting project to have the kids try to fundraise for a charity, which the Prairie Pedal was lucky enough to be the recipient of.

So, Tin tin, Marian, Lolo, Ruby, Elodie, Tiger, Justin, Brandon, Amos, Calvin and Andy have made posters, and have been asking around their friends and families for donations. Jenn has graciously agreed to match whatever they raise.

I was touched by this gesture and am hugely thankful to Jenn and all of her students. If a handful of children in Taiwan are able to contribute to this fundraiser, I hope I can count on just as much support from everyone else who visits this site.

The Lab: Treatment Options

As previously mentioned, Myeloma can currently not be cured, however it can be treated. I hope to shed a bit of light on the options available to myeloma patients here however, as usual, I encourage you to visit Myeloma Canada to learn more.

Treatments for multiple myeloma focus on containment and suppression of the cancerous cells in an attempt to minimize damaging effects of the cancer and prolong the patient's life. Each myeloma patient is unique and as such, each treatment is tailored to the individual patient and the stage which they are at.

Often, patients with multiple myeloma will undergo long periods with no treatment at all. Since the goal of treatment is to contain the disease, if the cancer shows no signs of progressing, patients will simply be monitored until signs are shown that the plasma cells are no longer stable. At this point, there are a variety of options to help bring the cancerous levels back to an acceptable level. Often, many of these methods are combined to give the most effective possible treatment.

Radiation therapy can be used to damage cancerous cells and stop them from reproducing. If the myeloma is concentrated in a specific location, this can be a very effective form of treatment. The problem however is that since myeloma is a cancer of the blood and marrow, it is often spread throughout the entire body and full body irradiation has been found to have limited effects.

Steroids can be used to help treat myeloma, however they are often used in combination with other drugs to increase their effectiveness. Long term use is often avoided due to unwanted side effects.

Chemotherapy is one of the most effective treatments in controlling the proliferation of cancerous cells. A variety of drugs are available which help to reduce the number of plasma cells in the bone marrow and thus decrease the level of proteins they produce. Recently, studies have combined these drugs with biophosphonates and thalidomide to help increase the effectiveness of the chemo and also to help strengthen the bones which are weakened by myeloma.

In some cases high-dose chemotherapy is used to bring the cancerous levels low enough to harvest some of the patients stem cells. These stem cells can later be used to transplant back into the patient in hopes of producing healthy plasma cells and proteins. If a patient's cancer count can not be brought low enough, a stem cell transplant is also possible by using another person's stem cells, however acceptance rates are low unless you're lucky enough to have an identical twin. Stem cell transplants are a very intensive treatment with a number of side effects and are often not suitable for those in poorer health.

This outlines a rough description of some of the treatments available for myeloma, however the key to fighting this disease is always in the patient. Since each person responds differently to the various treatments available, the key is in observation. Myeloma patients are under constant supervision to see how their cancer is progressing, what treatments they respond well to and what future options are available to them.

While none of these treatments is a cure, they are improving. With your help, the Molly & David Bloom Chair in Multiple Myeloma Research at the Princess Margaret Hospital will soon start moving closer and closer to a cure.

sources:
http://www.myelomacanada.ca/en/treatment_options.htm
http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Cancertype/Myeloma/Treatment/Treatmentoverview
http://www.multiplemyeloma.org/treatments/index.php

Calm before the storm

First, a huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far. The campaign is off to a great start, and I'm becoming more and more excited by the day. By the time you actually unleash me on a bike, I'll be out of Calgary and turning the long bend around Lake Superior inside of a week.

Well, ok... that's a bit ridiculous... but I am excited.

I wanted to post a quick update that I'll be taking a much needed vacation before ramping up promotions and preparing for the journey in August. Two of my wonderful friends, Antoine and Mounia, are hosting their wedding in Morocco and I will be spending June 10-20th basking in hot sun and the love of wonderful friends from Montreal.

I'm still hoping to keep in email contact, and possibly post the odd teaser update regarding beaches on 40'C days.

Update 22/06/09: The wedding was incredible and seeing friends whom I hadn't seen in over a year was the greatest holiday I could ask for. It was ridiculously hot, we barely slept, we were caught in the midst of a swine flu epidemic, I wore a djellaba and I loved every single moment of it. A HUGE thank you to Mounia's family for everything and to all of my friends for an unforgettable week.

Training: Swim, bike, run, sleep

In the history of triathlon teams, I would venture to guess that ours would be up-there in terms of ridiculousness. Just when we thought things couldn't get any stranger or more complicated, they always seemed to. For all of us, it was our first triathlon, however we weren't doing it under typical circumstances.

Vicky was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2008 and had spend the past year in treatment. She was the mastermind behind the tri, after setting it as a personal goal upon finishing one of the roughest years of her life. She managed to rope Mike and I into joining her in the summer of 2008 as we all lounged around a lake in Quebec with our freshly bald heads.

You know my story. I had broken my ankle in the fall and was limping my way to recovery. Triathlons were actually a smart idea for me since swimming & cycling were much lower impact on my ankle than continuing my usual distance running. Unfortunately, the week prior to the triathlon, my racing bike was stolen, making life a touch complicated.

Mike had possibly the most recent, and therefore most ridiculous story. The day before the race, we intended to head into London and spend some time with friends, however only a few hours before our train I received a message from Mike which read, "Off to the hospital, need stitches." Mike had played Rugby that morning, and had a bit of a clash involving his head. While we were an hour late getting into London, Mike snuck his way out of the hospital and even got clearance to do the triathlon. The catch was, he would do the race with five metal staples in his head.

After a wonderful evening with our friends Dave & Andrea, we woke and set off to Crystal Palace, hoping that we had endured enough ridiculousness for one event. The event was a pool triathlon, so we at least figured no one would drown. This also meant that we would have staggered starting times and that the three of us were in for a long day.

Generally, the course was a lot of fun. The 50m pool was a nice change over the 25m we had been training in. I found it a bit easier to get into a steady rhythm, and was actually surprised at how quickly the swim portion was over. The cycle and run followed nearly the same path which was unfortunate since there was a roughly 30 degree slope upwards at the start of each lap. We would grow to hate that hill, however our butts couldn't ask for a better work out.

What mattered though is that, in the end, we all crossed the finish.

Our final results were:
Vicky David + 1 year breast cancer treatment = 1h53m21s
Michal Wozny + 5 stainless steel staples in the scalp = 1h33m52s
Shane Saunderson + 2 titanium ankle pins - 1 racing bike = 1h30m27s


We owe a big thanks to Dave & Andrea for putting us up for the night, and I have to give a thanks to Mike as well for letting me use his mountain bike, even if I did curse it the entire 20kms around the track.

The Lab: What is Myeloma?

One of the most common questions which I get when I speak to people about this campaign is simply, "What is Myeloma?" I can't blame anyone for asking; until my father was diagnosed, I don't think I had even heard of the cancer before.

The first thing I'll say is that in this post, I want to give you a rough picture of the disease, however I am by no means an expert (unless you enjoy taking medical advice from a mechanical engineer). If you would actually like to know more about Myeloma, I recommend you visit the Myeloma Canada webpage. They've done a fantastic job of compiling a library of information on causes, symptoms, diagnosis, statistics and treatments, both traditional and experimental.

Myeloma (or Multiple Myeloma: they're the same thing) is a cancer of the plasma cells. As such, it affects both the blood system as well as the bone marrow, making it one of the more difficult cancers to deal with.

B lymphocytes (or B cells) are produced in the bone marrow and are the cells that eventually turn into plasma cells. When someone has myeloma, these B cells multiply at an uncontrollable level. This abnormal level of plasma cells can cause an array of problems from crowding out other necessary cell types (red blood cells) to forming tumors inside of the bone marrow.

Once these tumors begin to form, the body's immune system becomes adversely affected. Normally, the immune system would attempt to halt the cancerous growth of the myeloma cells, however since plasma cells are a part of the immune system, the body is stuck fighting it's own defenses against the cancer.

sources:
http://www.myelomacanada.ca/en/whatismyeloma.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_myeloma
http://myeloma.org/main.jsp?menu_id=0&tab_id=1&type=ARTICLE&id=601